2024 is ending, in many respects, as it began. It seems we’ve reached that (or a) stage where life is primarily about consistency – and we’re grateful for that. Our photo galleries for the year are full of memes, our animals being cute, meeting notes, and food/drinks we consumed.

We start with that observation primarily because we’re grateful for this life we get to live together — with each other and with you. The weekly routine of work, projects, lunches with friends, late-night meetings, Community Group meetings, walking the neighborhood, trivia with our neighbors, and Mario Party between emails doesn’t usually seem remarkable in itself. But we’re grateful for it. We’ve got some highlights below, but read them against the backdrop of a steady hum of busy joy.

Q1

Chinese New Year was, as often, our first highlight as we welcomed friends who flew in from out of state and who walked down from the floor above ours. Dumplings with friends is a beautiful rhythm. We’re currently consulting calendarists with a recommendation that New Year celebrations occur multiple times a year.

In February, we took the huge risk of accepting friends’ annual invitation to trade Chicago winter for a Mexican resort. Being the nerds we are, we treated it as a learning opportunity — we tested the hypothesis that we can’t spend three days just laying by water and ended up rejecting that hypothesis. It turns out, those places people say make for great vacations can actually make for great vacations, especially with close friends! We filed that learning away to revisit regularly. Stay tuned as we continue to gather data on this critical topic.

Justin spent a couple weeks in Central Asia again advising a team of grad students working to accelerate the market for green construction. Among learning about traditional building practices and the local real estate market, he also fell in love with bumble coffee, spent a day in the mountains, and took in a traditional Krygyz tale told via ballet.

Q2

April started with darkness. We again trusted that an event people call “once in a lifetime” was worth checking out, and drove the 185 miles to observe the eclipse in totality. And, really, all we can say is, “It’s worth it. It’s once in a lifetime.” While we’d both observed partial eclipses before, the change of temperature and sudden darkness of losing those last couple percentages of sun was shocking. Justin didn’t even get frustrated once while creeping through the parking lot that was I-65 for 8 hours to get home.

May was mostly work and life in Chicago (including some American ballet) until we extended Vivienne’s work trip to New York City to celebrate her birthday with friends and art and rooftops. It would turn out to be Vivienne’s last trip for that job — because July came with a promotion to lead a new team. Jumping ahead a few months, a lot of late nights, and more than a couple fire drills, she and her team are getting regular kudos.

Q3

July is when we officially became serial entrepreneurs. It turns out that anyone who files the right paperwork can start a business, and we have the virtual stacks of paperwork filed sufficiently to formalize a few projects. We won’t spam you here, but if you want some strategy & execution consulting, a home cleaned (in Chicago), or economic development support in an emerging economy, Justin can help. And he has the paperwork to prove it.

Fulfilling a long-delayed wedding gift, Vivienne chased down a bottle of rare whiskey for Justin’s birthday (with a little help from a friend).

Sadly, we also spent some of our summer with family memorializing men we lost. Both men exemplified the faithfulness and love we aspire to. Our lives are lesser without them — but infinitely greater for having had the privilege of knowing them.

Q4

Justin got the chance to join another student project based on economic development in challenging locations. This project took him just around a mountain from his childhood home in West Virginia to support employment options for those with a history of substance use.

We then had a bittersweet neighbor swap, as our amazing neighbors moved to a home with more space for their growing family, but we got to welcome our dear friends and COVID buddies back to Chicago.

And we were finally, FINALLY able to work out the post-COVID logistics and visit Vivienne’s parents. Flight changes and entry restrictions had made it nearly impossible since our honeymoon at the end of 2019, so we were long overdue. We got to spend time in Chongqing (seriously, some of the coolest engineering in the world — and the heart of its own cuisine) and then got a few beach days alongside Vivienne’s parents. Back in Shanghai, we referenced (recreated would be too strong) the photo from the night and location we got engaged, Vivienne caught up with a great friend, and we visited what’s purported to be the highest library in the world. It was…. Well, we’ll let you visit and decide for yourselves.

As discussed, December has gotten us mostly back our normal, busy, joyful rhythm. Plus attending few added holiday parties and Chicago date nights. And wearing more layers to go for walks. And a Notre Dame playoff win. And wrestling with the animals to force them into holiday pictures because Justin didn’t want to pretend to be photogenic this year. And, hoping clichés really do have their roots in truth, getting cards in the mail late rather than never.

Other tidbits

• Justin has leveraged his flexible schedule to catch up on his reading — he’s at 71 books in 2024 (so far, with a few more in the queue).

• Vivienne has been incredibly productive at work. She accomplished most of her 2024 annual plan. By July. So then, she took on a new job, built a new plan, and already overdelivered. She has the dashboards and performance reviews to prove it, but as a cybersecurity professional, she declined to share confidential information.

• Marco and Polo are starting to show their age, but are happily lounging around the house with us this holiday — and every other day.